It depends on the dance. Anything considered ‘dirty dancing’ should be avoided by unmarried people because it tends to incite passions. I think your examples might be extreme but the idea behind them is not far fetched. We should be passionate and physical with our spouses but we should not be passionate and physical otherwise. Or at least we should let passions build responsibly while engaged before getting married. Our current hookup culture is NOT the goal here. The goal is chastity, that ancient and now rarely heard word, that means we rule our passions in the service of others and are not ruled by our passions. Passions aren’t always bad but we do have to watch out.
Ave Maria University does Swing Dancing. My parish is teaching dancing to the seniors group. Catholic high schools do prom nights, albeit more carefully by far than the public schools. There is a place for dancing. Cautiously. Not everything goes. We need to practice custody of the eyes in even watching some dancing.
